Failed ‘Assault Weapon’ Ban Ends

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s "Bullet Points" online news service, the Justice Department says that the violent crime rate fell 54 percent in the last 10 years despite an increased supply of semi-automatic firearms. During the last decade, manufacturers continued to make and sell semi-autos, in full compliance with provisions of the 1994 Crime Bill some mistakenly refer to as a "ban" on such guns.

There was no federal prohibition on owning, buying, or selling the firearms Congress defined as "assault weapons" simply because the target or hunting guns shared cosmetic features with military arms. A Justice Department report estimates that approximately 1.5 million firearms fitting the "assault weapon" description were made and available for sale before the "ban" put restrictions on further manufacture of guns with cosmetic features resembling military machine guns.

These are only ornamental differences, of course, not functional differences. Congress did the equivalent of ordering that hood ornaments be removed from cars in order to prevent people from breaking the speed limit. Manufacturers have been wrongly accused of exploiting a "loophole" in the law to continue making semi-autos. To carry the car comparison even further, that amounts to exploiting a loophole to avoid getting a ticket by driving below the speed limit.

Each year of the "ban," figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives show that some 4,500,000 firearms were sold to Americans each year even as crime declined.

These include semi-autos which operate identically to "assault weapons." Last year, an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control concluded: "During 2000 to 2002, the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent nonfederal task force, conducted a systematic review of scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of firearms laws in preventing violence, including violent crimes, suicide, and unintentional injury.

The following laws were evaluated: bans on specified firearms or ammunition, restrictions on firearm acquisition, waiting periods for firearm acquisition, firearm registration and licensing of firearm owners, "shall issue" concealed-carry laws, child-access prevention laws, zero tolerance laws for firearms in schools, and combinations of firearms laws. The task force found insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearms laws or combinations of laws reviewed on violent outcomes.

As we go to press, the assault-weapons ban will end on Monday, September 13. "It will expire Monday, and that’s that," House Majority Leader Tom De Lay, Texas Republican, told reporters, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, said the Senate would not consider a renewal. Editor Keith Lawrence Technical